Image of slender centaury

Description:

Slo.: ozkocvetna taventroa - syn.: Erythraea tenuiflora, Erythraea latifolia auct., non Sm. - Habitat: sea shore, flat terrain, partly grassland; calcareous, skeletal, humid ground; full sun; exposed to direct rain; elevation 10 m (33 feet); average precipitations ~ 1.000 mm/year, average temperature 13-15 deg C, Mediterranean phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil. Comment: Centaurium tenuiflorum is a typical Mediterranean plant, which is quite common along sea shores of Adriatic islands. Otherwise the plant grows in the entire Mediterranean. It requires humid ground. So, it is often found close to sea on marshy ground, near springs and half salt lakes, which often form in small bays along the law land coast. There are several other quite similar species in this genus growing in Mediterranean. Typical traits of Centaurium tenuiflorum are clustered, flat-topped flowers, which have short flower stalks and narrow calyx tube of only about 1 mm diameter. Also there are no ground rosettes leaves. Two ground leaves are almost completely withered at the time of flowering. The pictures were taken on the island Olib in Croatia, but the plant can be (still) found along Slovenian sea shore. It is rare there and considered critically endangered facing extinction in Slovenia. Protected according to: Pravilnik o uvrstitvi ogroenih rastlinskih in ivalskih vrst v rdei seznam, Uradni list RS, t. 82/2002 (Regulation of enlisting of endangered plant and animal species onto Red List, Official Gazette of Republic Slovenia, no. 82/2002) (2002). Enlisted in the Slovene Red List of rare and endangered species, marked by 'E' representing a critically endangered species. Ref.: (1) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 506. (2) I. Schnfelder, P. Schnfelder, Was blht am Mittelmeer? Kosmos (2000), p 171. (3) M. Blamey, C. Grey-Wilson, Wild Flowers of the Mediterranean, A & C Black, London (2005), p 176. (4) R. Domac, Flora Hrvatske (Flora of Croatia) (in Croatian), kolska Knjiga, Zagreb (1994), p 306.